Truth Hurts
by bookowl18
Summary: The truth will set you free, or says the new ghost turning the Fenton's lives upside down. When they find themselves incapable of lying the Fenton's scramble to keep everything together. How much of their lives depend on fallacies?
1. Chapter 1

Lies are the root of all conflict. Get rid of the lies and the problems will iron themselves out into simple fact and truth. The process isn't always clean, but the world is an imperfect place.

The Fenton household is quiet tonight. For once everyone seems to be resting at the same time, a rarity for the family. An opportunity for the ghost. She had slid out of the ghost zone hours before while the Fenton parents had their backs turned. A few of their devices on one of the cramped tables made faint noises and lit up when she floated near them and she took that as her que to get out of the lab. They had the homefield advantage and she didn't want to cross them. Upstairs in the living room no sensors went off and she relaxed a little.

She went to the corner and sat cross-legged on the ground, invisible, and watched the various family members throughout the day. Jazz and Danny Fenton got home from school in the afternoon and went to their respective rooms. When Danny had first entered the doorway a breath of cold mist escaped his mouth and he had looked around nervously. His eyes passed her, unseeing.

She wasn't too worried. She knew who he was and that he was dangerous, sure, but she also knew his little ghost detecting power didn't tell him exactly where she was. More often than not the ghosts came to him so he didn't have to look for them, but she wasn't going to do that. Talk about a stupid move.

Danny had rushed up to his room then and patrolled the neighborhood for half an hour or so before returning. He brushed it off and started his homework. The ghost would have been lying if she'd said she wasn't on edge that whole time. But she never lied. She knew his ghost sense wouldn't go off a second time unless she went a certain distance away from him and then came back but having him know she was around was not comforting. When he returned she finally relaxed into the chair.

The rest of the day in the Fenton house was rather boring. Maddie Fenton came up from the lab and made dinner, Jack stayed in the lab, and the kids stayed in their rooms. They all gathered around the table and talked about their day while they ate. She sat on the counter and watched them, still invisible of course. They all lied at least once. She knew, and it annoyed her. She hated lies. Some of the lies were small, some were whoppers, but she disliked them all.

She reclaimed her living room chair after dinner was over. Everyone went to bed a few hours later. She waited until 3 in the morning before floating out of her seat and up the stairs. These things were better done while people were asleep. She looked at the doors, debating who should be first. She picked the daughter, Jazz. She was alone and was least likely to wake up.

The ghost phased through the door and over to Jazz's sleeping figure. She positioned her floating body directly over the bed, face mere inches from the sleeping girl's. Carefully the ghost brought her hands down and grasped each side of Jazz's head, her thumbs going intangible and into each temple. She pushed them further in until she felt a sudden subtle decrease in resistance, almost like she had pushed a button. Jazz didn't stir. Smiling the ghost laid her head back down and flew to the Fenton parent's room.

She repeated what she had done to Jazz on Jack and Maddie, although much carefully. She didn't know if they had any equipment to detect ghosts in their room. But she finished her work without anything abnormal happening and she phased back out of their door relieved. Now it was Danny's turn.

She had done this to ghosts, and to humans, but never to a half ghost before. She phased into his room and watched his prone form for a few minutes to see if he stirred. She did not want to mess this up. Cautiously she floated above his bed and steeled herself. She could do this. She would do this. She gently took his sleeping head in her hands and began her procedure. Surprisingly it was not that difficult. There was a moment near the end where she had felt a numbing coldness creep through her hands and up her arms but she remained steady. It was his ghost half subconsciously rejecting her. She pushed through it easily and finished.

She rose up out of the room smiling. Things would be better after this. They always were.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny woke that morning feeling… odd. It wasn't a bad feeling, per se, it was just unusual. As if something had been changed, but subtle enough for him not to know what it was. Maybe he should have eaten more at dinner last night. Yawning he got up and got ready for the day. **  
**

By the time he sat down for breakfast everything seemed normal again. His mom was up already, making toast in her ectojammies. When his dad woke up she'd change into her jumpsuit and they'd begin working in the lab. Usually he woke up with her and sat at the table drinking black coffee while she made breakfast, but he seemed to have slept in today.

Nonchalantly Danny asked, "Where's dad?"

He had expected to get a short one word answer and drop it at that but what his mom said next was unexpected.

"He started his new medicine this week and it makes him feel a bit sick so I let him sleep in this morning." She said it while buttering a piece of Fenton toast, not turning around.

"Oh." Danny said quietly, looking down into his cereal.

New medicine? He hadn't known his dad was on any medication. Their parents usually didn't bring up things like that; serious things that couldn't be changed. Maddie and Jack had a firm belief that their kids shouldn't worry about those types of things. They'd have plenty of time for that later on in life.

Jazz entered the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal while Danny finished his. She started talking about her plans for the day, (mostly researching in the library and what tests she needed to study for), and Danny forgot about the medicine comment.

—–

The drive to school was silent, as usual. Neither teenager really wanted to talk while they waited for the car's heating to start working. Danny sat on his hands and shivered. You'd think being dead would let him tolerate the cold better, but no such luck.

The day at Casper High passed normally enough for him. He met with his friends, went to classes, ate lunch. Things started to go downhill after that.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were at their lockers in between classes getting books and talking. Tucker looked down the hallway and squinted, looking for someone among the crowd of students.

"You know, Dash hasn't slammed us into the lockers all day." Tucker said. A smile snaked its way onto his face. "Maybe he's sick!"

"Hopefully." Danny replied, bending over to put his books in his backpack. "It'd be a nice break for my face. I hate letting him rag on me. Maybe he'd be less of an asshole if someone put him in his place."

Danny stood up and slung his backpack over one shoulder before turning to face his two friends and freezing. His wide eyes met Dash's furious ones as he pushed past Tucker and into Danny's face.

"What was that, Fenton?"

Danny's heart beat fast as he answered quickly, trying to find a suitable lie.

"I said maybe you'd be less of an asshole if someone put you in your place."

Dash had Danny by the shirt and slammed into the lockers before Danny could even process what had happened. Why had he said that? He hadn't meant to say that, at no point had told his brain to send that shit out of his mouth, but it had.

Dash had almost amused glint in his eye when he asked, "And who's gonna do that? You? Ha! I'd like to see you try."

"No you wouldn't." Danny responded, immediately cursing himself again. Did he want to die a second time? The late bell rang and the students rushed to their classrooms. Dash looked around and smiled. Only Sam, Tucker, Danny, and Dash were left.

"You know what Fentwerp? I could use some entertainment." Dash said. He dropped him on the group and backed up, arms wide. "Come on. Come "put me in my place" or whatever. Give me your best shot."

Danny stood up and and tried to figure out what to do. He clearly couldn't actually fight Dash. He didn't need anyone wondering where he'd learned to fight. He looked at his two friends still in the hallway, but they just frowned at him. He'd have to fake it.

He comically reared his arm back and took a very slow swing at Dash. He had intended to harmlessly hit his shoulder, but at some point before he made contact his body decided enough was enough, and let Dash have it. It was over so fast that the three students still standing actually looked around in confusion, as if something else had sent Dash flying into the opposite wall and knocked him out.

"Oops," was all Danny could say.

Danny stared at his arm warily, like it had a mind of its own. What was that about? He had only meant to barely tap him!

"Danny what they hell?!" Sam said rushing over and shoving his arm down. "You didn't actually have to hit him!"

"I didn't meant to! I don't know what happened!"

Tucker walked over but his eyes didn't leave Dash's limp form in front of the dented row of lockers. He snapped his head up at the sound of students getting out of their desks to investigate the noise in the hallway.

"Dude we have to get out of here or people are going to see us." Tucker said, grabbing Sam and Danny's arms and dragging them down the hall and around the corner.

"We'll talk about this after school, don't bring it up in Lancer's class." Sam said and the other two nodded.


End file.
